[1996-12-04-BattlARTS] Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Excellent match. A little more pro-style than most of the BattlARTS so far because Taka and Funaki bring the Michinoku Pro tendencies, so you get an awesome styles contrast. Great finish with Ikeda keeping Ono at bay while Ono locks in this crazy contorted hold on Funaki for the submission.

[PeteF3]

Pretty good match that's almost pure wrasslin', from the moves to the double-teams to the pure southern tag layout.

[KB8]

I liked this a lot. Ikeda and Ono have only showed up as a team about three times on the set (so far), but they're a pair of incredible shit kickers. Ono has shed the Vietnamese girl bun and so doesn't look quite as obnoxious, but he still has no compunction about kicking someone in the liver. Ikeda is a total fucking steamroller and I kind of loved how the M-Pro guys decide it'd be in their best interests to isolate him and rip his legs off. Then they try to get too fancy and he mows them down with lariats.

[Jetlag]

Team Taco once again are total bastards stretching and smacking the shit out of the M-Pro guys. So, just doing what they do really well. Ikeda of all people ends up being in peril, which makes no sense from a US psych standpoint but perfect sense from a japanese quasi shootstyle indy standpoint. The legwork from TAKA/Sho was a little lacking but other than that they did fine and didn't infuse their pro style too much (altough this is def. a hybrid match). Super enjoyable match due to all the guys sticking to their roles and what works for them.

[soup23]

This was neat to see M Pro guys in this setting and Ono was being a huge prick going after them. I loved how fast the pace was here as the match felt like one where the viewer was unable to take a breath while watching it. Ikeda also did a good job here of showing his size advantage which is not always the case when he is up against some Bat Bat regulars. ***3/4

[tim]

Pretty good match. Felt a little too submission based to play to Taka and Funaki's strengths. Ikeda hits some vicious lariats on his comeback and the last burst of action with Taka hitting his springboard dropkick is good. Overall I'm the low vote on this one it seems.